Archive for January, 2015

If anyone was in doubt about the accuracy of the comments made in India by Eleanor Catton, the reaction from some quarters here at home has gone a long way to proving her point. By ‘some quarters’, I mean (a) RadioLive host Sean Plunket who called Catton a “traitor” and ...

Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on the Eleanor Catton rumpus

Brain fades are one thing, but the brain freeze that seems to have beset the Prime Minister over the Mike Sabin affair is an even more worrying affliction. Sabin is a National MP, and the current chairman of Parliament’s law and order committee. Yet reportedly, he is being investigated by ...

Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on the Sabin case, the pressures on Greece and coyotes

The Key government has already kicked off the political year on a stridently ideological note, with Environment Minister Nick Smith choosing to lay all manner of sins at the door of the Resource Management Act. Tomorrow, the government will wheeling out its best salesman – Prime Minister John Key – ...

Posted in Articles | Comments Off on On tomorrow’s speeches by John Key and Andrew Little

So the US has been holding talks in London this week with its 21 coalition allies, on how best to co-ordinate the military response against Islamic State. Oddly enough, New Zealand has not been attending the conference even though we seem well down the track to contributing to the ...

The election in Greece on Sunday – and the likely triumph of the left wing Syriza Party – will be only the first of three hammer blows this year to the European Union and its politics of austerity. Spain too will be holding a general election later this year ( ...

This week, Prime Minister John Key was reportedly invited to join a private birthday celebration for the young daughter of British PM David Cameron. They’re that close, the Keys and the Camerons. For years now, David Cameron has been the closest available thing to a mentor/analogue to our Prime ...

Posted in Articles | Comments Off on Gordon Campbell on the similarities between John Key and David Cameron

Like most events in security intelligence, the resignation for “family reasons” of GCSB boss Ian Fletcher has got (a) a simple straightforward explanation and (b) a complex, conspiratorial one. It may well be that after being shoulder-tapped in Queensland for the GCSB job, three years of living in ...

Now that the Kouachi brothers have made their Butch-and-Sundance dash for martyrdom, and now that the millions have marched in Paris and elsewhere to defend the Republic…. the events of the past week remain no closer to any comforting resolution. Some have found something repugnant about the attempt to ...